Semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are among the most efficient light sources currently available. Materials systems currently of interest in the manufacture of high-brightness LEDs capable of operation across the visible spectrum include Group III-V semiconductors, particularly binary, ternary, and quaternary alloys of gallium, aluminum, indium, and nitrogen, also referred to as III-nitride materials. Typically, III-nitride devices are epitaxially grown on sapphire, silicon carbide, or III-nitride substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), or other epitaxial techniques. Some of these substrates are insulating or poorly conducting. Devices fabricated from semiconductor crystals grown on such substrates must have both the positive and the negative polarity electrical contacts to the epitaxially-grown semiconductor on the same side of the device. In contrast, semiconductor devices grown on conducting substrates can be fabricated such that one electrical contact is formed on the epitaxially grown material and the other electrical contact is formed on the substrate. However, devices fabricated on conducting substrates may also be designed to have both contacts on the same side of the device on which the epitaxial material is grown in a flip-chip geometry so as to improve light extraction from LED chip, to improve the current-carrying capacity of the chip, or to improve the heat-sinking of the LED die.
In order to fabricate efficient LED devices, the contacts must be electrically isolated from each other such that electrical carriers of the appropriate polarity are injected into the p-type and n-type sides of the semiconductor junction, where they recombine to produce light. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical III-nitride LED device. Semiconductor layers, including, for example, n-layer 12, active region 13, and p-layer 14 are epitaxially grown on substrate 11. P-contact 15 and n-contact 17 are formed on the same side of the device as described above. Electrical isolation between the p-contact 15 and the n-contact 17 is achieved by etching a mesa structure 18 into the device extending from the topmost layer down into the underlying n-layer and forming separate, defined p-contact 15 and n-contact 17. The LED is mounted to a submount assembly 22, which typically includes a submount on which the LED is mounted with solder bumps. The solder bumps create a gap between the submount and the LED. The connected LED and submount assembly are then typically encapsulated in a high index of refraction gel or epoxy.
The high index gel or epoxy is selected to match the index of refraction of the sapphire substrate as closely as possible, since the light produced in the device is extracted through the sapphire substrate. When light is incident on an interface between two materials, the difference in index of refraction determines how much light is reflected at that interface, and how much light is transmitted through it. The larger the difference in index of refraction, the more light is reflected. Thus, the small difference between the index of refraction of the sapphire substrate and the high index gel encapsulating the device ensures that most of the light generated in the device that reaches the emitting surfaces of the sapphire substrate is extracted from the device.
Photons are generated efficiently within active region 13, but extracting the photons from the semiconductor into the LED package and to the outside world is difficult, in part due to the high indices of refraction of the semiconductor layers. See, for example, Windisch et al., Applied Physics Letters, vol. 74, no. 16, p2256 (1999). Photons generated within the epitaxial semiconductor are incident upon either the interface between the semiconductor and substrate 11, the interface at mesa wall 18 between the semiconductor and the high index gel in submount assembly 22, or the interface between the semiconductor and the metal contacts. Photons incident on any of the three interfaces face a step in material refractive index. Such a step in refractive index causes a ray 20 incident on such an interface to be split into a transmitted portion 20a and a reflected portion 20b. Light transmitted out from mesa wall 18 (i.e. portion 20a) cannot be directed out of the device in a useful direction, thus light lost through transmission at mesa wall 18 contributes to the low light extraction efficiency of semiconductor LEDs.
The high index gel encapsulating the device results in a small difference in refractive index at the interface at mesa wall 18 between the semiconductor area between the contacts and the submount assembly. As a result, much of the light incident on this area is transmitted in the direction of the submount assembly, which causes significant optical loss. As described above, light extracted in this area towards the submount assembly cannot be usefully extracted from the package; rather, it is incident on the submount where it is absorbed. The device area between the contacts on a device such as that shown in FIG. 1 is estimated at 10% of the total area. This area includes the mesa wall and a small portion of semiconductor material parallel to the substrate and between the edge of each contact and the mesa wall. Methods of reducing such losses include the use of wafer fabrication techniques such as self-aligned metalization and tightened manufacturing tolerances to reduce the area between the contacts parallel to the substrate. Such wafer fabrication techniques may result in other problems such as increased reliability problems and difficulty in manufacturing. In addition, wafer fabrication techniques do not significantly reduce losses, since 3-D optical ray trace modeling of high index gel-encapsulated, III-nitride LED structures grown on sapphire shows that, of the light undesirably extracted from the LED chip in this direction, the majority is lost through the mesa wall rather than from any surface of the epitaxial material which runs parallel to the substrate surface on which the epitaxial semiconductor was grown. The light extracted at the mesa wall is on the order of 15% of the light generated within the LED, the exact figure depending on, among other factors, the mesa wall height and angle.
As light propagates through the device, it is subject to attenuation. Attenuation can occur at all places within the semiconductor, but is likely to be largest at the interfaces, for example between the semiconductor and the substrate; between the semiconductor and the contacts; in the active region; and in any nucleation layer present between the first semiconductor layer and the substrate. The further light propagates, the more it is attenuated. Light rays travelling through the semiconductor with a large angle β, the angle of propagation relative to the substrate, will require a longer path length to travel a given distance in the semiconductor resolved parallel to the substrate, compared with light rays with a small angle β. Each time a ray is reflected, the sign of the angle of propagation is reversed. For example, a ray propagating at angle β will propagate at an angle −β upon reflection. Large angle β rays will pass a greater number of times through the active region and will be reflected off the various interfaces (and especially at the semiconductor/p-contact interface and at the semiconductor/substrate) a greater number of times. Each time the ray is reflected, it becomes more attenuated. Such rays will therefore be subject to greater attenuation per unit distance of propagation in the x-direction than rays travelling at shallower angles β. Thus, most of the flux (optical power) incident on the mesa wall is incident on the mesa wall at shallow angles β.
FIG. 2 illustrates a model of flux distribution on the mesa wall as a function of propagation angle β. For a device with some absorption in the contacts, e.g. a device with an aluminum p-contact, 70% or more of the total flux incident on the mesa is incident at an angle −10 degrees<β<30 degrees. For an ideal device, i.e. a device with a highly reflective p-contact such as a pure silver p-contact, the proportion of flux incident on the mesa wall within this same angular range falls to about 60%.
Accordingly, an LED structure which minimizes loss at the mesa wall, particularly for light incident at angles between −10 and 30 degrees relative to the substrate, is needed.